Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) on Tuesday went after presidential hopeful and quickly rising rival Michael Bloomberg (D), referring to him as an “egomaniac billionaire” just one day ahead of the Las Vegas Democrat debate, which the former New York City mayor will participate in.
The Massachusetts senator, who has struggled to regain her footing and once-held top tier status, set her sights on her billionaire rival after it was revealed that he had successfully qualified for Wednesday’s Democrat primary debate and will, in fact, participate, despite his absence on the Nevada caucus ballot.
“It’s a shame Mike Bloomberg can buy his way into the debate,” Warren said on Tuesday. “But at least now primary voters curious about how each candidate will take on Donald Trump can get a live demonstration of how we each take on an egomaniac billionaire”:
This is far from the first time that Warren has taken aim at Bloomberg. She took shots at the billionaire in November following the beginning of his multimillion-dollar ad buy, which currently tops $400 million.
“Michael Bloomberg is making a bet about Democracy in 2020. He doesn’t need people. He only needs bags and bags of money,” she said.
I think this is fundamentally wrong,” Warren continued.
“It’s going to be about which billionaire can you stomach going forward. Because believe me, there are plenty of billionaires who think they should be president, or the minimum, should be picking the president,” she added:
Bloomberg has since overtaken Warren in RealClearPolitics’ rolling average, besting her by two percentage points.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has also come out forcefully against his newest billionaire rival, drawing attention to Bloomberg’s record and his “racist policies like stop and frisk” during a massive rally at the Tacoma Dome on Monday.
“Today we say to Mayor Bloomberg: we are a democracy, not an oligarchy, you’re not gonna buy this election,” Sanders told the crowd of over 17,000.
“We say to Mr. Bloomberg, you are certainly not going to win when you have a record in New York City that included racist policies like stop and frisk which caused communities of color to live in fear and humiliation in New York City,” Sanders continued.
“The American people, working for families all over this country, want an economy and a government that works for all of us — not just a handful of billionaires,” he added:
Both Warren and Sanders will face off with the former New York City mayor on Wednesday evening, alongside Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Pete Buttigieg (D), and Joe Biden (D).